Marquette women’s basketball defeated the St. John’s Red Storm 66-62 Wednesday afternoon due to a second-half rally and a 21-point performance from senior guard Selena Lott.
The Golden Eagles came into today’s BIG EAST matchup on a three-game winning streak and were looking to improve to 2-0 in BIG EAST play.
“I thought we were very composed down the stretch,” Duffy said. “To execute offensively, and then to just even get the ball inbounds and step up and make a couple of free throws really helped. I also thought we had a couple of really good defensive possessions down the stretch as well, and even going back to the Belmont game and today I thought we showed poise.”
The win did not come easy for the Golden Eagles today as they trailed 37-31 at halftime and found themselves down by eight points at one time during the game.
Now on a four-game losing streak, St. John’s sophomore guard and reigning BIG EAST Sixth Woman of the Year award winner Leilani Correa led the team. She finished with a game–high 31 points, six rebounds, and four steals.
Correa also scored all of St. John’s’ points in the third quarter, totaling 31 points after only three quarters, but the Golden Eagles stepped up defensively in the final frame and forced Correa to go scoreless the rest of the game.
“Correa was absolutely incredible,” Duffy said. “I thought we did nothing in the first half to make it challenging, but I thought a little bit in the second half we put more bodies around her and had the mentality to pressure her and trap her at times and really wear her out, so I thought that was pretty useful as an adjustment.”
Senior guard Selena Lott led the Golden Eagles in scoring with 21 points on 7-13 shooting from the field to go along with five rebounds and four assists. Redshirt senior forward Lauren Van Kleunen also scored 12 points, she has had double digit scoring in every game this season.
With Van Kleunen getting into foul trouble, Duffy resorted to her bench to freshman forward Liza Karlen, who made the most of her opportunity. The St. Paul, Minnesota native posted a career-high nine points in just 10 minutes off the bench, shooting 4-5 from the field.
“Duffy always reiterates just being ready all the time regardless of the situation, whether you play five minutes or 25, it doesn’t matter you just have to be ready to come off the bench and give that energy,” Karlen said.
Sophomore guard Jordan King did a little bit of everything on the court this afternoon as she finished with a career-high eight assists and five steals despite only scoring six points.
“Jordan’s a kid that can score, but we’ve really challenged her to feed others on a night where they’re scoring, and I thought she did a really good job of that, especially in the second half of getting the pace going and finding her open teammates,” Duffy said. “The steals and deflections were a huge part of her success as well, so I was happy with her performance.”
The Golden Eagles (5-1, 2-0 BIG EAST) will now travel to South Orange, New Jersey Saturday and take on the Seton Hall Pirates. Tipoff for Saturday afternoon’s contest is scheduled for 12 p.m. Central Standard Time.
This story was written by Sam Arco. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @sam_i_am119.
